Black Bolt - Champion Rework Concept
It's been quite a while since I've been on the Forums, but these few days I've decided to have a bit of fun and do another MCOC concept, this time of a rework to Black Bolt. He's always been such a cool character to me, and it's a shame that he has so little to do in-game despite his awesome power set.
For this rework, I really wanted it to embody Black Bolt as a character. What came out was a kit involving a lot of heavy charging (representing him charging up his scream), with fun Special Echo elements like Phoenix, culminating in a satisfying Sp3 (or Sp2) payoff. I also wanted to somewhat stay true to his original kit, which is why his main damage revolves around building up buffs, with an emphasis on Furies and Cruelties, the two that he already has in-game. Additionally, he also has an, albeit much more toned-down, version of his self-recoil damage, although this time it comes from his heavy rather than special attacks.
This Black Bolt kit is mainly designed as a medium-length quester/AW attacker, with tons of buff-based utility, immunities, and a fair bit of ramp up. He has a shorter form BGs-esque rotation as well, but in those kinds of healthpools he finishes in the 45-60 second range. Now, here's his full kit.
Black Bolt
Class: Cosmic
Black Bolt
Class: Cosmic
Champion Stats
Health: 95,840
Attack: 7,791
Armor: 592
Crit Rate: 1,072
Crit Damage: 1,620
Block Prof.: 3,693
Always Active
Black Bolt’s electron energy cannot be manipulated, granting him immunity to all Power Drain, Power Steal, and Power Burn effects
Black Bolt’s superior inhuman physiology grants him immunity to Poison effects, his Adrenaline decays 50% slower, and his Adrenaline gain rate is 125%
Black Bolt’s rigorous mental training has caused him to become immune to all Delirium effects
All of Black Bolt’s personal buffs are paused during his and the opponent’s special attacks
Gain a 6 second Cruelty buff whenever a Critical Hit is landed, increasing critical damage rating by 170 (max. 15 stacks). Using a heavy attack pauses these Cruelties for 2 seconds
Electron Channeling - Passive
When charging a heavy attack, Black Bolt gains Electron charges (max. 1000), at a rate of +80 charges per second.
Upon dealing heavy attack damage, Black Bolt takes 94 energy damage per charge gained
The damage Black Bolt takes from this heavy attack charge is stored as Adrenaline
For every 1% of max health lost from heavy attack charging, gain a 12 second Fury buff granting 1,885 attack (max. 15 stacks)
If a heavy attack is charged to its full duration, gain a 7-second 15% Heavy Proficiency buff that is refreshed whenever a Cruelty buff is gained (max. 3). When a Heavy Proficiency buff is active, all heavy attacks become passively Unblockable
Attilan’s Focus - Passive
When above 300 Electron charges, if Black Bolt were to focus and charge his heavy attack to its fullest duration, he gains a dormant Undermine, True Focus, and True Damage charge.
If the heavy attack is directly followed by a special attack, gain a 15-second Undermine passive.
If it was directly followed by the activation of the Dexterity mastery, gain a 9-second True Focus passive
If it was directly followed by another heavy attack, gain a 7-second True Damage passive
Only 1 Attilan’s Focus passive can be active at a time, and they cannot be refreshed. Upon activating a dormant charge, all other charges are removed.
Activating a charge consumes 100 Electron charges
Special Attacks
At the end of special attacks (except for special 3), if Black Bolt has above 500 Electron charges, Black Bolt gains a 6-second Special Echo buff each granting 13% of a bar of power (these can’t be paused by special attacks) for each buff he currently has. This ability can only be activated every other special attack, and consumes two of each type of buff that Black Bolt has. This does not consume Electron charges
Special 1
Stuns the opponent for 1.5 seconds if the opponent gains a Special Echo buff after the special attack
Gain +200 Electron charges
Special 2
If Black Bolt has >700 Electron charges, all attacks in this special attack are guaranteed critical hits.
This special attack consumes 400 Electron charges upon activation
Special 3
For every Electron Channeling charge on Black Bolt when this special attack is used, increase special damage by 0.4% (scales with base damage only)
For every buff on Black Bolt, increase the special attack’s damage by +3% (scales with base damage only)
Upon activation, Black Bolt’s buffs don’t expire, but lose half their total base duration
If the Special 3 would knock the opponent out, all Fury and Cruelty buffs on Black Bolt will carry over to the next fight in the quest, become Austere buffs causing them to become immune to Nullify, and gain +25% duration and potency (max. +150%)
This attack consumes all Electron charges upon activation
Signature Ability - Silent King
Black Bolt’s buffs are paused for 2-6 seconds after using the special 3
If one of Black Bolt’s personal buffs were to be Nullified, it is instantly replaced with an Austere buff of the same potency, but with its duration reduced by 60-15%
Whenever one of Black Bolt’s buffs were to be removed in any way other than natural expiry, instantly gain Adrenaline for 0.5-3% of max health (cooldown 9-3 seconds)
Animations
In terms of animations, I really enjoy the current ones we have right now because they fit the simplicity of his powers/attacks quite well (also I'd save the cool sonic animations for someone like Banshee). My entire kit is mainly built to fit with the animations he has (fast Sp1 like Phoenix, Guaranteed Crits with Sp2 animation reminiscent of Lumatrix, charged-up scream on SP3). The one change I would make is to his heavy attack, where instead of being a 2 hit melee, it's now a 1-hit short range scream. When charging his heavy attack, you can see Black Bolt's antenna conducting the Electrons around him to create a shining, warping effect
Champion Rotation
1. Parry and use heavy attacks, make sure to charge them to their full duration in order to build Electron charges and Fury buffs. Weave in basic combos to build Cruelty buffs and gain Heavy Proficiency, which increases your damage and counters Stand Your Ground, letting you chain heavy attacks in gamemodes like BGs or AW
2. If additional utility is needed, use Attilan’s Focus to get Undermine, True Focus, or True Damage
3. Build to above 500 Electron charges, and immediately use an Sp1 to get Special Echo. This should give a decent amount of power, letting you build to another special attack. Use another Sp1 immediately, letting you use your Special Echo on your next special attack. While building your power, keep using heavy attacks to continue building Electron charges and Fury buffs, and basic combos to build Cruelties. Make sure to keep your Heavy Proficiencies refreshed as well for a higher buff count
4. If your opponent has very little health left, build to a little over your Sp1, and activate to trigger your Special Echo. Due to Black Bolt’s high buff count at this stage, the power gain will allow him to reach his Sp2, where if Black Bolt has enough Electron charges and Cruelties he will be able to finish off the opponent with his guaranteed critical hits
5. If the opponent has a larger healthpool or you simply want to keep his rampup going into the next fight of the quest, then build to just under an Sp2, and use your Sp1 to get your Special Echo, pushing you above 3 bars of power and letting you use an Sp3. If this attack
finishes off the opponent, your Fury and Cruelty buffs will become Austere and carry over onto the next fight in the quest
Key Utility Pieces
Easy access to Undermine, True Damage, and True Focus, letting him bypass Auto-Block based defenders like Ruby Thursday, and Armored defensive stalls such as Red Skull
Signature ability and Sp3 ramp up Austere buffs grant anti-Mystic utility by countering Nullify effects
Easy buff gain makes him great for buff-dependent nodes, like Buffed Up or Rich Get Richer
Easy access to powerful Special Attacks make him great for Power Shield nodes
Immunity to Poison and Delirium
Counters power manipulation through his immunities to Power Drain, Steal, etc
Unblockable heavy attacks from Heavy Proficiency counters the Stand Your Ground mastery, letting Black Bolt chain heavy attacks
Sp2 Guaranteed Crits bypasses his Crit RNG, and deals big damage with his Cruelties
His increased Adrenaline gain and slowed Adrenaline decay rate grant him increased survivability, making up for his self-damage during heavy attacks
